Going down the stairway, I touched the walls, these ancient walls my family had built all those years ago, when this was a manor. Back before the Salem Witch trials, or well, Brockton's own version of the event.
Nowhere near as horrible or as painful as that particular event was, but still bad enough that our very own Manor was burnt down. Mostly because one of my ancestors was accused of witchcraft, which, to be fair, they were a magus, just not a witch.
Proper terminology and all that, but to the pilgrims they ight as well be one and the same. Over time, though, the building above became many things over the changing years, but for quite a while now, it has been one of the few public libraries in
Allowed the Arco family to keep an eye on potential well...ingridents, at least to those who practiced teh darker aspects of magecraft. Regardless of what my parents and grandparents think, alongside myself, I had to admit they got results. Especially in regard to parahumans, or at least studying them to figure out how they worked.
Most would think in a world of well-combined fictions, as some would describe it, most magi would figure out Scion was an alien entity right away. However, it wasn't a straight road from point A to point B.
In fact, quite a few of us thought it was the world regressing somehow to the age of gods, and this might be perhaps a new divine spirit or something else like it. Either that or somehow teh world simply missed it as they traveled the reverse side of the world, reaching ours somehow.
Then came the parahumans, speaking of which, as I reached the bottom of the stairs, I was greeted with my family's own vast library. Sure, it wasn't massive like some of the public institutions nor as the royal family's personal collection, but it was sizeable.
Looking over to my parents and grandparents' personally written books, who studied quite extensively on the subject, first to figure out where they came from, and then how to remove them properly without killing them.
The alien parasite, that is, the source of the parahuman's powers, proved extremmly difficult. In fact, at first we thought it was perhaps the reverse side of the world colliding with ours, leading to...odd effects. We were quickly proven wrong when we figured out Scion's true nature. The research my grandparents started, which my parents continued, and I will hopefully complete, proved to be fascinating.
When the clock tower alongside other institutions discovered the fact that both were connected, and quite literally alien to our world. A being that we, humanity, and Gaia itself could not coexist with, and I was quite suprised the counter force, which was the only reason I even knew of it now, being my alternate self, including the two beings involved with it.
Gaia and Alaya, both entities, would've done everything possible to destroy the Endbringers and Scion, to drive them from this world. It would perfectly align with both interests, one to protect the planet and its natural state, the other humanity, to allow it to advance and survive a distant future without magecraft.
However, if both problems had the potential to be cut off and taken care of without expanding too much energy, they would allow it to do so. Alaya would destroy a couple of cities to do so.
Regardless, though, as I walked over to my workbench, I was greeted with a crystal ball, a mystic code that allowed one to examine one's magic circuits and teh quality of them. A simple little device, but one that was a failure amongst all the rest, as the magus who designed it was hoping to discover one's origin, their very being.
Well, an artificial way of doing so anyway, still a failure is a failure, this being one of the few mystic codes useful after being declared such.
"Zeig mir die Wahrheit meiner Seele. (Google Translate)" I uttered as I pricked the tip of my finger, letting a single blood droplet drop onto the ball.
It lit up with an eerie yellow glow as it displayed two things: the first being my magic circuits, which now fluctuated between 38 and 42, which was simply astounding. Next was the quality, which was written above average, not a major change compared to the increased magic circuit number, but still a welcome change.
Smiling, I also needed to figure out how my elemental affinity changed as well, as that would influence my magecraft going forward. A simple enough thing to do, as I opened up a nearby drawer, taking out a piece of parchment and five gems.
Each one was expensive, but it was already in the family by the time I inherited the Arco mantle.
Breaking it down simply, ruby equals fire, jasper equals earth, lapis equals water, quartz equals air, and amethyst equals ether. A simple enough alchemical technique, one that didn't require much energy to use and was quick as well.
"Zeig mir das Wesen meiner Seele." I muttered, using a deeper voice on the device, which itself was quiet and only responded to a few different commands.
The gems hummed to life, as my od seeped into all five of them, beginning the ritual. Eventually, both Earth and Ether glowed brightly while the other three elements fell to the table, no longer containing my Od.
"Fascinating, while I still have my Earth elemental affinity, I have gained Ether as well. Did my alternate self have it, or is that simply a side effect of our two souls colliding?" I said to myself as I began putting away the two items, the test alrady done for now until any more irregularities came up.
Either way, I now needed to figure out which discipline to dedicate my own life to and improve the family's craft upon. Especially because all these new memories and possibilities of this world were now contained within my mind.
While my family used to dedicate itself to one discipline, it expanded over the years to try to fill in the gaps of our research. All without relying on outsiders interfering with our research.
Alchemy was the dominant art that we all practiced and one that we had the most expertise in. Necromancy being next, albeit that was because one of my ancestors was a bit...mad in all honesty.
I think the records indicated he wanted to try to turn himself into a 'vampire' or a Dead Apostle more accurately. This was before our family knew of the clock tower and the wider moonlit world.
Either way, it could perhaps prove useful in a small way, alongside the bits and pieces of soul research my great-great-great-grandparents did. Alongside that, we did dive into runes as well as summoning, or more accurately, familiar-based magecraft.
I think my father admitted it was a crude attempt at mimicking the summoning system used by the holy grail. Well, before Scion's existence was discovered, that is, it didn't matter either way; it only led to some basic improvements to our alchemy.
Although my father believed it could lead to more knowledge on the soul, and help create a new, proper pathway for us to explore. Well, if my descendants choose so, however, I need a more proper pathway, something straightforward.
I was leaning towards alchemy in all honesty, perhaps trying to use religious knowledge to mark a way to the root. Either that or perhaps use the concept of 'Horn of the End' like the seven trumpets or Gjallarhorn that signalled Ragnarok.
Perhaps even the end of life, as from the small lore tidbits my alternate self oh so graciously gave me, told me something our family did not know about the root. It was the final destination of the soul, the place we went to after death, before our inevitable reincarnation.
However, that could also result in my own end, and perhaps lead to other unforeseen consequences as well. Either way, that didn't matter at the moment, but it was safe to say my family had various pieces of literature and notes on the listed disciplines. Evne then, the only main problem this world face were the endbringers, and the reason why Scion is no longer on the chessboard, or so I believe anyway.
Well, it all had to do with a certain spider being in South America, alongside the Kaleidoscope, the Queen, other predominant magi, and even a few Dead Apostles, well, those friendly to humanity anyway.
Friendly as in they don't go around devastating entire human cities or towns, so a win in that case. That and also a few of the more powerful ancestors, which I believe led to several more filling in their spots as well, the event came to be known as either "Golden Devastation" or "Green Disaster" as several miles of the associated country where the Spider landed is now a wasteland where everything is dead.
So fingers crossed that Scion was locked out of this version of Earth Bet when that happened, although how the shards were still functioning properly afterward is a mystery.
If it's simply gathering and analyzing the new data like the alien computer, it essentially was. Either way, it was a headache that had no answer, even with the newfound knowledge my alternate me had.
Either way, I needed to figure out where to focus my studies, beyond the basic hypnosises, bounded field, reinforcement, and various other basic spells I already knew and trained in.
I think hours passed as I tossed book after book, looking through them all, trying to figure out which art I should devote my life to. What I could do to improve our families chacnes of reaching the root in the future. That's when I heard the beeping from my downstairs monitors.
Rubbing my eyes in frustration, I hurried over to them to see what could have possibly tripped my motion sensors. On screen, I saw a couple of guys in green and...red? Classic gang signs of the Azn Bad Boys, but why were they all the way out here? I was pretty sure this place was on the edge at least with Empire 88.
"Why the fuck are you all here?" I whisper to myself, as I turn around, going toward my wardrobe, knowing that my bounded fields were more designed for supernatural threats and only slowed down mundane ones.
I took my librarian clothes off, slowly putting on the little cape persona I had put together for such events. While I detested the local and wider Cape culture, I did admit that a little anonymity would help keep my personal life secret.
Either way, I slowly put on a brown trenchcoat and a hat to go alongside it, a black shirt, and pants with boots to match. Finally, to complete my persona, I put on a crow mask and got my mystic code in the shape of a cane. All of it, of course, with runes engraved on it to help protect me from mundane weaponry and strengthen my body.
"Let's get this party started, shall we?" I say to myself as I begin walking toward teh library and up the stairs.